Sunday, March 08, 2009

Watchmen Movie Review

I read this graphic novel, Watchmen, in 1986. I have hoped this story would eventually make the silver screen since that moment in time. It would have been impossible a decade ago to create a movie which would require the level of CGI to bring forth the vision of Moore to the screen. I went in with humongous expectations for this film and I was not disappointed.

About this Movie:

The Watchmen Movie is based on the popular graphic novel (comic book) miniseries from the mid 1980’s by Alan Moore. This comic defined the term graphic novel with its graphic portrayal of an alternate universe where superheroes existed and had been outlawed in the 1970’s. The life of caped vigilante is shown to be a dirty and morally off center life for many of the characters. This story was revolutionary for the comic book genre and how fans looked at their heroes.

This is not a movie for the kids. It is rated R for a reason. It has intense violence, gore, nudity (male and female nudity), adult language, and a rape scene. It is not your average comic book movie.

What I liked about this Movie:

I believe this movie stuck to the heart of Moore’s story. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, it could not add in every detail from the comic but it did bring the soul of the story to life. Unlike some other comicbook adaptations, this movie stuck to the plot and often the very tiny details rather than just borrowing general concepts and character names only.

The cinematography was beautiful and picturesque of the comic book panels. It was amazingly accurate on the details of the scenes. I dropped my jaw numerous times it was perfect on the important panels. Some of these panels were the breaking of glass when the Comedian is thrown out of the window, Nite Owl wiping his glasses, and the clock on Mars.

The casting of Rorschach was nailed. The actor that portrayed Rorschach not only had the look and feel of Rorschach but also had the voice and delivery of the lines. His every changing inkblot mask was freaky and cool at the same time. In the comic, Rorschach wore lifts to compensate for his short stature. This was not directly discussed in the film but you could visually see the height difference between character in disguise and without the mask in prison.

The cast in general was great. I really believed these actors were the characters from the book.

I loved the presentation of the 80's. It was like a trip back in time. I remember the heaviness of the nuclear race and how intense negations were to lower the stock piles. They used the popular culture of the 80's with MTV and politicians and commentators (such as Pat Buchanan) to bring in the illusion. This movie used music from the 70's and 80's very effectively. All of this helped produce the feel of the big decade on the screen.

This movie was two hours and forty five minutes long but it did not drag on at all. Every moment of the film was enjoyable from the beginning to the very end of the film. I felt like I got my money’s worth even with paying for full price tickets.

What I did not Like:

There was not much that I disliked about this movie. I could nitpick about how they left out this detail or that detail. I could complain about the changing of the big ending. But really I can not complain about those things because this movie made it work.

My Review:

I loved this movie. It was a great presentation of this wonderful but disturbing comic. It is gritty and grimy but that is the nature of the Watchmen. As a fan of the comic, there were times where I knew they were missing a scene but I am hopeful it will be on the extended edition of the movie when it comes to DVD. The scenes that were missing were not essential to the plot of the story.

1 comment:

About This Blog

This blog is for Movie Quotes that we enjoy that we felt were snubbed by the AFI Top 100 Movie Quotes.We will also be posting other movie related posts including movie reviews. We have not worked on the quotes for a while but will come back to it soon.